1/24 Tired Old Transit

[Anteater]

Looking underneath now, and I weathered the chassis to replicate a good level of grot and road dirt. The chassis is pretty simplistic but good enough for the bits that will be visible when it's on its wheels. I flattened the rear leaf springs down a little as the stance was a fraction too high, even for a brand new unladen van (of which this is neither).

 

With no engine provided there was a risk of daylight through the grille so I lashed up a rough and ready radiator to "good enough" standard.  

 

 

 

Just before fitting the body for the final time, I added some seat belts up front. The rear passengers won't get them because 1984. 

 

 

 

On with the body. The doors are hinged to open (by Italeri) which means the fit is a bit approximate until the final fit when they pull into place a little better. 

 

Round the back I cut some plylining from the cardboard back of an old notebook stippled with Revell Africa Matt. Looks ok to a blind man on a flying horse. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may or may not notice/care that I chanced another coat of Mr Hobby Matt Topcoat on the tailgate to make the faded traces of the signwriting as subtle as possible. 

 

The windscreen caused the Anteater pulse to increase sharply. The side and rear windows in this kit basically snap into place using tabs, which is one of the reasons I dispensed with the side door windows altogether and made my own quarterlites. However, the windscreen has no tabs and took a fair bit of persuading to lodge in position. I had visions of a large crack forming.

 

 

And finally for now, a scratch-built roof ornament ready for painting. 

 

 

 

More to come once I get a chance to do some more work on it. 

 

Anteater.

[Toftdale]

You have obviously been very busy during your IT issues,  it looks great.  I especially like roof rack.  🥳

[Pete in Lincs]

Neat! Nice grotty underside. Nowadays we get laser cut van liners. Back then it was hardboard and a Stanley knife. Yours look great.

Great roofrack. Now you need a coathanger aerial, and the tailpipe to be hanging off! Oh, your tax disc is 22 years out of date

1 hour ago, Anteater said:

The rear passengers won't get them because 1984. 

Wot, George Orwell traveled in the back?

[Richard E]

33 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Neat! Nice grotty underside. Nowadays we get laser cut van liners. Back then it was hardboard and a Stanley knife. Yours look great.

Great roofrack. Now you need a coathanger aerial, and the tailpipe to be hanging off! Oh, your tax disc is 22 years out of date

 

And to echo my learned friend a pair of fluffy dice hanging off the rear view mirror and some gaffer tape running repairs on the seats.

[Anteater]

I used to have fluffy dice in my Capri... 😀

 

This Tranny doesn't have an internal rear view mirror because when driving a van, what's behind you is largely irrelevant. I own a commercial vehicle so am allowed to say that.

[Pete in Lincs]

My beer wagon has a rear view mirror. It's in the door pocket.

The door mirrors meantime, are full of Muppets!

[Anteater]

Time for another update.

 

This is how the interior turned out:

 

 

 

I've added the badges, the Transit one is nicely produced by Italeri, very crisp. 

 

 

 

 

Up front, I still have to add some wipers. The kit offers a RHD dash but no corresonding wipers so I have drilled new holes and will convert the kit wipers from LHD using a simple cut and shut technique. They're reasonably delicately moulded so I don't think think I could do better building my own, not like they're big clompy things.  

 

Note the AA badge on the grille, I'm quite happy with this as it's my first attempt at printing my own decals - I'm starting small.

 

I've made some BECC number plates with a Newcastle area code to match the old faded 091 phone number on the tailgate. I'll make a suitable dealer sticker for the back window too; Cowies are a well known dealer group who have thier roots in the North East. It's all got to be geographically credible... 

 

 

 

 

Not far off an RFI on this one.

 

Anteater.

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

It's all in the details. And you've added some nice ones.

[johnlambert]

Great work, I guess the only criticism I could make is that the number plates look too clean and tidy for the rest of the van.  I assume they had to be replaced to get it through a MOT  

[Anteater]

Filthy numbers plates would be an easy way to get pulled over really, why attact attention? 

 

RFI is up 😀